Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, Ang Lee’s Life of Pi and David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook were the big winners when nominations for the 85th annual Academy Awards were announced this morning, each film finding themselves with 12, 11 and eight nods respectively in major categories. Spielberg’s epic received additional nominations for director, Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis, Supporting Actress Sally Field, Supporting Actor Tommy Lee Jones, adapted screenplay, cinematography, costume design, editing, original score, production design and sound mixing and is widely seen to be the frontrunner to take home the top prize.

Not that the other two can be easily discounted. Silver Linings Playbook became the first film in 31 years to be nominated in all four acting categories, leads Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence and supporting players Jacki Weaver and Robert De Niro all receiving nods. Also nominated was Russell for both his direction as well as his screenplay adaptation, while the movie additionally received a notice in the all-important editing category as well.

As for Life of Pi, Lee’s well respected adaptation of Yann Martel’s mystical novel was nominated for its direction, adapted screenplay, cinematography, editing, original score, original song, production design, sound editing, sound mixing and visual effects. While obviously beloved by Academy voters, its Best Picture prospects do seem limited due to the lack of any acting nominations, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King being the last film to win without any.

The biggest surprises of the morning were in the Best Director category. Along with Spielberg, Lee and Russell, the well-respected Michael Haneke was nominated for his handling of Amour while newcomer Benh Zeitlin found himself a nominee for spearheading Sundance and Cannes Film Festival favorite Beasts of the Southern Wild. Perceived shoe-ins Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) and Ben Affleck (Argo) were left standing in the cold wondering what had happened, their – and by all rights their films’ – status as frontrunners to win the top prize erased in a matter of seconds.

Best Actor nominees included the already mentioned Day-Lewis and Cooper, Denzel Washington (Flight), Hugh Jackman (Les Misérables) and, in something of a minor surprise, Joaquin Phoenix (The Master). Many thought Phoenix’s chances for a nomination had been erased after he made a series of remarks disparaging the Academy, voters instead choosing to recognize the performance over the comments and to not hold a grudge.

Alongside Lawrence, the Best Actress field consists of Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty), Naomi Watts (The Impossible), Emmanuelle Riva (Amour) and Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild). At 85, Riva becomes the oldest nominee ever in the category. As for Wallis, at just 9-years-old she in turn becomes the youngest, making for a somewhat unique talking point you can be sure Oscar pundits will be yammering about long after the ceremony itself has ended and the awards themselves are given out.

For the first time ever, an acting category sports five previous winners vying for the award, the Best Supporting Actor lineup consisting for Academy Award-winners Jones, De Niro, Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master), Alan Arkin (Argo) and Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained). As for Best Supporting Actress, the nominees are also all previous winners or nominees, Weaver and Field competing against Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables), Helen Hunt (The Sessions) and Amy Adams (The Master) for the Oscar.

Along with Lincoln, Life of Pi and Silver Linings Playbook the other two Adapted Screenplay nominees were Argo and Beasts of the Southern Wild, while Original Screenplay nods went to Amour, Django Unchained, Flight, Moonrise Kingdom and Zero Dark Thirty. Snubs in these categories included scripts for Looper, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Les Misérables and The Sessions, all of which at one time or another were thought of as nomination favorites.

The winners of the 85th annual Academy Awards will be announced on Sunday, Feb. 24 during a telecast broadcast from the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. Hosting the event will be Ted and “Family Guy” creator Seth McFarlane, and while this year’s list of presenters has not as of yet been announced one can assume it will be as typically star-studded as ever. Until then, let the guess work begin!